June 17, 2013

What's Going on Here?

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Dear Colleagues,

There are two major organizational efforts at the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus that will pick up steam this summer. The first is a review of our grants and contracts infrastructure throughout the institution. This particular effort was prompted in part by the interim report of the Research Task Force in the School of Medicine, which identified as its highest priority evolving our current, somewhat splintered, approach to grants and contracts management throughout the schools, departments and centers on this campus. We hope to organize a process to address the complex, and we believe solvable, issues that keep us from being as effective and responsive as we need to be for a highly leveraged research-intensive institution. This process should be underway within a month.

The second priority area, discussed here for many years, has been pulling together an effective clinical trials organization for the faculty on our campus who need assistance with this very important academic endeavor. We are launching an initiative to identify strategies and priorities for establishing an Anschutz Medical Campus Office of Clinical Research (OCR). The on-campus faculty and staff community will get a separate communication from us later this week. Please don’t delete it. Read it.

The Denver Post on Sunday had an interesting article on the decade-long discussions surrounding the move of the Veterans Administration Medical Center to the 35 acres east of the Anschutz Medical Campus. It is worth reading if only for a glimpse of our political system. Also in yesterday’s Post, I noted an obituary for Natalio Banchero, MD, former professor of physiology whom I remember well from his years here. He joined the faculty in 1972 and retired in 1997. He was Faculty Senate President in the early years of my Deanship. His obituary describes him as “a man who craved knowledge, lived his life romantically and treated others with a generosity of spirit and an often-biting sense of humor.” He contributed as much to the Denver community as he did to our curriculum and our school.

Children’s Hospital Colorado announced last week that it ranked No. 7 on U.S. News & World Report’s 2013-14 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll. The magazine includes only 10 hospitals on the Honor Roll out of 179 that were invited to participate in this year’s survey. Children's Hospital Colorado ranked in all 10 surveyed specialties and nine of the 10 ranked in the top 20. Six of the hospital's specialties staffed by our faculty ranked among the top 10: gastroenterology & GI surgery (No. 5), pulmonology (No. 5), diabetes & endocrinology (No. 8), neonatology (No. 9), orthopedics (No. 9) and cancer (No. 9). Children’s Hospital Colorado has been recognized on this list every year since the ranking’s inception in 1993.

Richard Schulick, MD, MBA, chairman of the Department of Surgery, caught last week’s inaugural flight from Denver International Airport to Japan on the United Dreamliner. And while there was much fanfare at the airport, with dignitaries including Gov. John Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock giving speeches before passengers boarded, Rich was on his way to Tochigi, Japan, to participate in the 25th Meeting of Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery. It was a nice surprise for Rich, who told a Denver Post reporter that he jumped right into the celebration.

Robert Hodges, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, has been honored with the Murray Goodman Scientific Excellence and Mentorship Award by the American Peptide Society. The award recognizes Robert for career-long research excellence and mentorship in the field of peptide science.

The Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute is seeking a co-director to lead its community engagement and research core, which aims to reduce health disparities in the Rocky Mountain Region. The deadline for applications is June 26. Those with questions or interest in the position should contact Dee Smyth.

The Faculty Senate has issued a call for nominations for the School of Medicine Faculty Professionalism Award. The recipient should exhibit civil and courteous behavior, service to the community, dedication to lifelong learning and other behaviors that represent the core traditions of our profession. The deadline for nominations is Friday, June 21, and the winner will be honored at the Matriculation Ceremony in August. Contact Cheryl Welch with questions.

University of Colorado Health today is celebrating the opening of its second inpatient tower with a daylong symposium looking at the challenges facing Academic Health Science Centers and their affiliated teaching institutions. As you read this, many of us are participating in this terrific day, to be capped by the dedication of the new tower at 4 p.m. this afternoon. More on what happened next week.

"What’s Going On Here" is an email news bulletin from Richard Krugman, MD, Dean of the CU School of Medicine, that is distributed to inform University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty members about issues pertaining to the School’s mission of education, research, clinical care and community service. If you would like to receive these emails directly, or to unsubscribe, please contact Cheryl.Welch@ucdenver.edu.